The History of Apartheid in South Africa

Apartheid was a system employed by the dominantly white government that held the people of Africa apart for over half a century, and is only now being uplifted. It literally means ‘apartness’, and that states a lot about the system itself. The basis of it was to classify all the different people of Africa into races - of which there were four basic ones: White (European and Caucasian), Black (any native African), Indian (Pakistani and Indian) and Coloured (A mix of any of the above). Furthermore, these were sub-divided even more.

Apartheid officially came into use in 1948, when the National Party came into power, by a slim margin, but the history of discrimination goes much further back than that, to the beginning of the European settlement of South Africa in the 1600’s. The East India Trading Company set up a post at Cape of Good Hope to supply passing ships with fruits, vegetables and meat. The post was not meant to be a settlement, but those posted there built homes, cultivated crops, and got ‘settled in’.

The natives of the are understandably disliked strangers invading their land. The East India Company tried to keep the tension at a minimum, and limited the amount of land the settlers could use and the amount of crops they could grow. The amount grown was to be sold to the Company for a low price. The settlers did not take that well, and resorted to smuggling.

During the Napoleonic wars, the British took over the post as a naval station. Although the Dutch had been unhappy under the rule of the East India Company, the British turned out to be much worse for them. The British had a different language, different church, and a different way of dealing with the natives. Some of the more independent farmers sold their farms, and headed further inland, battling natives on the way. They established two independent countries, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal South...

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The Afrikaners are a South African people of Dutch or French Huguenot descent. In 1998, 2.7 million Afrikaners inhabited SouthAfrica, consisting of about 56% of the white population. Their language is Afrikaans, a derivative of Dutch. The Nationalist party of SouthAfrica was founded in 1914 by James Barry Munnik Hertzog to protect and promote the interests of Afrikaners...

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There are some places where control is total. SouthAfrica. If you are black. Here the power of the state and the power of a dominant race have reached a crisis point, a web of restraint unmatched in history. Even as it crumbles, the omnipotence of this system is awesome. One sees it best through the eyes of the black youth of the townships, its greatest victims and over the last decade, its most determined enemies. Like that of their parents', these children's very presence was illegal under apartheid. Nearly everywhere black existence itself was against the law of the invader - white South Africans, who comprise only 5 percent of the population, had appropriated 87 percent of the land mass to themselves, including all major cities, permitting South African blacks, who comprise 95 percent of the total population, only small parcels of arid soil for black "homelands," compulsory reservations.
Under the apartheid system, a series of laws made it technically illegal for blacks to appear anywhere else at all, since their presence outside the slender reserves of land allotted to them might be a criminal offense. However, this land could not support them, and the only opportunities for survival and employment lay in the white districts where their labor was needed and counted upon by the white...

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Apartheid legislation in SouthAfrica
National Party leaders argued that SouthAfrica did not comprise a single nation, but was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, colored, and Indian. These groups were split further into thirteen nations or racial federations. White people encompassed the English and Afrikaans language groups; the black populace was divided into ten such groups.
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The first grand apartheid law was the Population Registration Act of 1950, which formalized racial classification and introduced an identity card for all persons over the age of eighteen, specifying their racial group. Official teams or Boards were established to come to an ultimate conclusion on those people whose race was unclear. This caused difficulty, especially for colored...

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Apartheid was developed after World War II by the Afrikaner- dominated National Party. By definition Apartheid is a system of racial segregation. The National Party (NP) governments enforced Apartheid, through legislation, in SouthAfrica from 1948 to 1994. This new legislation classified inhabitants into four racial groups: black, white, coloured and Indian. (The Indian and coloured groups were further divided into several sub-classifications.) Through the Apartheid policy, “the government segregated education, medical care, beaches, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people.”
In addition, “the state passed laws which paved the way for Grand Apartheid, which was centered on separating races on a large scale, by compelling people to live in separate places defined by race.” The first grand apartheid law was the Population Registration Act of 1950. The population Registration Act formalized racial classification by issuing all people over the age of 18 an ID card specifying their racial group. The second major law passed was the Group Act of 1950. Until this law was passed, most settlements had people of different races living side by side. “This act put an end to diverse areas and determined where one lived according to race. Each race was allotted its own area, which was used in later years as a...

...the Apartheid legislation had on SouthAfrica and explain how Nelson Mandela triumphed over it’
The Apartheid legislation was a system of governance that made a huge impact in SouthAfrica in the 20th century. It was introduced by the national party after they were elected in the 1948 election. It was a form of segregation that discriminated against the races in SouthAfrica. It was the law in SouthAfrica for 46 years. The Apartheid sparked lots of internal resistance with violent riots and protests taking place by groups of people. Nelson Mandela was a leading force in the opposition on Apartheid and did everything in his powers to destroy it. His voice was heard all over the country when he was the leader of Anti Apartheid movements and when he was in jail.
Apartheid Legislation had a detrimental impact on society in SouthAfrica. It was pioneered in 1948 by the newly appointed national party of SouthAfrica when they came to power. The struggle for the end of Apartheid was long lived as it lasted until 1994 when the National party lost the election. Apartheid was the segregation of the South African people into different race groups such coloured, white, Asian and Indian....

...Apartheid In SouthAfricaAPARTHEIDApartheid is the political policy of racial segregation. In Afrikaans, it
means apartness, and it was pioneered in 1948 by the South African National
Party when it came to power.
Not only did apartheid separate
whites from non-whites, it also segregated
the Blacks (Africans) from the Coloureds (Indians, Asians).
All things such as jobs, schools, railway stations, beaches, park benches,
public toilets and even parliament.
Apartheid also prevented blacks from living in white areas. This brought
about the hated "pass laws". These laws required any non-white to carry a pass
on him or her. Unless it was stamped on their pass, they were not allowed to
stay in a white area for more than 72 hours.
Despite the fact that the whites only make up just over 14% of the
population, they own 86.3% of the land. However, it must be said that the
Afrikaaners are entitled to the Orange Free State and Transvaal as they were
first to use it after the Great Trek of 1836.
The average South African White earns eight times as much as the average
black man. Coloureds earn three times as much as black while colords earn well
over half of what whites earn.
During Apartheid, media censorship was at an all time high. People were
even banned from showing Soweto on television. It was...

...Apartheid in SouthAfrica
Introduction
Apartheid, according to the Cambridge Advanced Dictionary, is a political system in which different people of different races are separated. Between 1948 and 1994, SouthAfrica underwent this system. It was a policy designed to separate the ‘white’ South Africans from the ‘black’.
This law officially began after the Reunited National Party won the elections in 1948. Only the ‘white’ South Africans were allowed to vote and be part of the government, whilst ‘black’ Africans were completely forbidden.
Laws and Legislation
The ‘black’ Africans had been oppressed, controlled and dominated. Strict legislations had been imposed. In 1949, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was introduced which banned mixed marriages. In 1950, the Immorality Act forbade even any sexual relationships between white and black. If they were caught or even suspected, severe punishments followed especially for the blacks.
A lot was done to keep the blacks from seeing or living with the whites. The Group Areas Act of 1950 separated the country into different areas allocated to either blacks or whites preventing them from staying with one another. The Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1951 gave ministers the right to remove all blacks housing on public of privately owned land. In 1953, people from different races were even stopped from...